Abstract:

The aim of this thesis is to describe public innovation support offering to small and medium sized enterprises in Finland and evaluate support providers’ impact measurement. Based on mapping of support providers, case study approach is applied to further study impact measurement of relevant support providers. Information was gathered from public sources, interviews and literature.

Based on mapping, Tekes was selected as a case example of a national support provider and New Factory from Tampere as a case example of a regional support provider. Measurement of impact in the latter was quite straightforward process but Tekes gave a more complicated example.

The main focus is on Tekes’ yearly publication of results of impact. Its 12 measurements for results are evaluated based on theory. Only one of the measurements is evaluated to be good, two moderate and rest to be weak. In most cases the reason for a weak evaluation was weak validity of the measurement.

Based on literature, ideas for improvement are presented in the form of new indicators to describe selected objectives. Furthermore, the overall measurement of impact is discussed and new areas of measurement proposed. Even though the task of impact measurement remains challenging, improvements presented would shed more light to the impacts public funding is used for.Tämän diplomityön tavoitteena on kuvata julkisen innovaatiotuen tarjontaa pienille ja keskisuurille yrityksille sekä arvioida tuen tarjoajien toimien vaikuttavuuden mittaamista. Tuen tarjoajien kartoituksen perusteella tapaustutkimusmenetelmää sovelletaan keskeisten toimijoiden tutkimisessa edelleen. Tietoa kerättiin julkisista lähteistä, haastatteluista ja kirjallisuudesta.